Courtesy of the artist

I came across the name of Maria Chavez for the first time last July when going through the program of the Christian Marclay Festival (Whitney  Museum of American Art,  July 1- September 26 2010).  It was only a matter of time to see Maria perform live in one of the many events happening in town. Her intuitive, interactive, reactive way of treating her materials, vinyl records and needles for that matter, impressed me. She is also one of the few female artists, if not the only one, in town who manages to bend the turntablist rules effortlessly and create immersive sonic atmospheres made of sparse samples, clicks and scratches. And these are only a few of the reasons that motivated me to do this interview with her. Maria was born in Peru, lived in Houston and is now based in Brooklyn. She is currently curating  a series of shows entitled Dead Of Winter Works at the Splatterpool Gallery showcasing new work by Richard Garet, Shelley Burgon, David Linton, Byron Westbrook, Future Archaeology and Sarah Lipstate. I have asked her a few things about her relationship to vinyl, her working process, about the NY scene and about fashion. Continue Reading More »

Opening tomorrow is a very special series of sound art performances and installations entitled Dead of Winter Works #1-6 presented by Splatterpool Artspace.  The project, which is curated by renowned avant-turntabalist Maria Chavez, envisions garnering a collective of multi-media talents for individual and collective introspection (basically to be entranced) during those “dead of winter” months. As we are already being wrapped in to the winter’s darkness, a series of experimental multi-media performances curated by an avant-garde sound artist already sounds pretty amazing. Kicking off tomorrow night is Richard Garet and until the end of February the line-up of artists include Shelley Burgon, David Linton, Byron Westbrook, Thomas Dexter, Future Archeology, Sarah Lipstate. And of course Ms. Chavez herself will be present throughout the performances. Complete details and the entire schedule is up on Splatterpool.